Former ‘Cuse DE Backs Shafer as Orange HC

Mikhail Marinovich, former DE for the Syracuse Orange, entered the 2011 football season as both a senior and a potential NFL prospect. A veteran of both the Greg Robinson and Doug Marrone eras, Marinovich helped establish the Orange’s gradual return to relevance on the NCAAF landscape.

But while the DE was racking up 36 starts (seeing action in 48 games and missing just 1 contest during his four year career) his body was taking a silent beating.

By graduation, the now married Marinovich had accumulated 3 herniated discs in his back and an inability to take the field without pain management injections.

As a result, the California native opted to forgo an attempt at a NFL career and instead expanded his father Marv Marniovich’s (USC Trojans, Oakland Raiders) training program into a nationwide business endeavor. MarinoFIT, launched in December 2012.

But his business venture is not the only new beginning that the former pass rusher is excited about.

On Wednesday, Syracuse University named Scott Shafer as the head coach of the Orange. The move came in the wake of Doug Marrone’s departure to Buffalo after delivering two bowl wins in four years to a team that amassed only two victories in the season prior to his arrival.

Shafer served as Marinovich’s defensive coordinator and on Sunday, Mikhail gave a ringing endorsement via social media.

The post was “liked” by several current players including, Charley Loeb and Zack Chibane.

Now that Shafer has indeed received the nod at head coach, he inherits a team that is destined for a new conference and what is expected to be a higher level of competition.

Syracuse A.D. Daryl Gross endorsed his new head coach and in a recent statement described him as “a brilliant coach, a tireless worker, and a relentless recruiter who believes that we can create a sustainable championship culture.”

If Syracuse is to continue rebuilding their recruiting pipeline while also making noise in the ACC, Shafer will need to live up to that endorsement come August.

As for Marinovich, his new endeavor is already off to an impressive start

His father, Marv’s success on the gridiron had already attracted current professional sports stars such as the Knicks Tyson Chandler, the Steelers Troy Polamalu, and the UFC’s BJ Penn.

“Whenever I worked out with Marv,” states Chandler in a promotional video for the product, “I felt like I had a lot more energy and felt a lot loser.”

But with a desire to bring the product to a much broader audience, Mikhail went to work on packaging the program as a web-based training aid.

A subscription to the program includes virtual access to a live personal trainer 12 hours a day and only requires that the customer owns his or her own stability ball.